With this 3rd paper, we are going to show that there is more to the story of “the angels that sinned” which are “chained in darkness” than meets the eye. The angels that sinned are presently among us on earth as walking, genetic, Biblical violations in shoeleather (today probably in football or basketball shoes).

With this issue, we will continue to scrutinize a 31 page booklet entitled The Angels That Sinned, written in 1929 by Clifton L. Fowler, and reprinted by Dan Gayman of the Church of Israel in 1992. While the author gets a lot of things right, he falls slightly short of understanding the sexual seduction of Eve in the garden of Eden which brought about “the seed of the serpent” at Gen. 3:15. He divided his booklet into seven subchapters thusly:

“I. The Angels That Sinned Were At One Time Angels Of Righteousness And Glory.

“II. The Angels That Sinned Were Disobedient In The Days Of Noah.

“III. The Angels That Sinned Are The Same As The Sons Of God Of Genesis Six.

“IV. The Angels That Sinned, Sinned In Like Manner To Sodom And Gomorrha.

“V. The Angels That Sinned Became The Progenitors Of The Giants.

“VI. The Angels That Sinned Particularly Aimed At The Pollution Of The Women Of The Race.

“VII. The Angels That Sinned Are Now Imprisoned In Tartarus Awaiting Judgment.”

On pages 5-8, Fowler (although with a couple of errors which I will address), stated thusly:

“I. The Angels That Sinned Were At One Time Angels Of Righteousness And Glory:

“The sentient creation of God falls into three great groups – angels, demons, and men. All three were created perfect, because God being perfect produces only that which is harmonious with His perfection. For that which is imperfect to spring from a perfect source is unthinkable.

“Not only were the three great divisions of the sentient beings in the universe created perfect, but they all likewise experienced a fall. The Scripture indicates that the fall of man involved the entire race, also that the fall of the demons was universal; but in the case of the angels, only part of these unique creatures turned against their mighty Creator. The balance, apparently the overwhelming majority, remained true to God.

“In viewing the truth that the angels that sinned were at one time angels of righteousness and glory, we observe three facts in God’s Word:

“(a) that God created the angels and planned for them a service that was holy and pure and good;

“(b) that some of the angels are presented in Scripture as being evil;

“(c) and that the evil angels are held accountable for their fallen condition.

“A. God created the angels and planned for them a service that was holy, and pure, and good.

“One writer, in discussing the angels, declares that the Bible does not tell us whether or not they were created by God. To this we cannot agree. The Bible surely does tell, and that most clearly. The angels are declared to have been created by God.

“‘Thou, even thou, art Yahweh alone: thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host ... and the host of heaven worshippeth thee ...’ (Neh. 9:6).

“What is meant by ‘the host of heaven?’ In some passages this expression means the stars. In other passages the same expression means angelic beings. A study of the context will reveal the correct meaning in every case. It cannot mean the stars in this passage from Nehemiah, for the host of heaven is revealed to be sentient beings because they worship God. And these sentient beings who worship Him are declared to have been the product of the mighty creative power of Him whom they now adore.

“Paul, the mighty apostle of the mystery which is His body, also declares to us that God is the Creator of the angelic host, although he employs quite different terminology from that employed by Nehemiah.

“‘For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him and for him’, (Colossians 1:16).

“From Nehemiah we learn that the angels worship Him – hence they are set forth as holy. From Paul we learn that all the denizens of the sentient universe, including angels, were created by Yahweh and for Yahweh. Since they were created for Him, the angels were created holy.

“The fact that the Inspired Book presents the angels as righteous beings, employed of God in the working out of His mighty and holy purposes, and operating as messengers of the Most High, is shown in many passages.

“In Genesis 24:40, God sends an angel to prosper Eliezer in his unique mission of finding a wife for Isaac:

“‘... Yahweh ... will send his angel with thee (Eliezer) and prosper thy way ....’

In II Kings 1:15, Yahweh employs an angel in giving guidance to the prophet Elijah:

“‘And the angel of Yahweh said unto Elijah, Go down with him, be not afraid of him.’

“In Exodus 23:20, it is an angel who is God’s representative leading the people of Israel to the promised land:

“‘Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared.’

“In Acts 7:53, we learn that angels were active in the giving of the law:

“‘Ye (Israel) have received the law by the disposition of angels and have not kept it.’

“In Matthew 4:11, angels minister to the Lord Jesus himself:

“‘...behold angels came and ministered unto him.’

“In II Chronicles 18:18, the angels are seen ranged in serried ranks [compacted as soldiers] about the throne of God:

“‘... I saw Yahweh sitting upon his throne, and all the host of heaven standing on his right hand and on his left.’

“In Daniel 6:22, an angel is sent to perform the unusual task of sealing up the mouths of lions:

“‘My God hath sent his angel and hath shut the lions’ mouths ....’

“In Daniel 7:10, we view the prodigious concourse of angelic beings gathering before God on the coming day of judgment:

“‘A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.’

“These passages, and many more, reveal the holy character of the angels as set forth in God’s Word. They are indubitably shown to have been divinely created and created perfect, because they were created ‘for Him’; and their work as planned by God is a holy work, because [it was] harmonious with the impeccable purposes of Him who cannot sin. They are holy messengers of a holy God.

“B. Some of the angels are presented in Scripture as being evil.

“That sin, hideous sin, should appear in the ranks of these holy beings, the angels, is deplorable, but none the less a fact. So we find in the Inspired Book more or less frequent reference to the evil angels.

“In Psalm 78:49-51 the Psalmist is describing the plagues which Yahweh sent upon ancient Egypt, because Pharaoh would not let God’s people go. The climacteric plague (i.e., critical or bloody period) is introduced by the words:

“‘He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending EVIL ANGELS among them ... And smote all the first born in Egypt ....’

“The sorrow and just rebuke in the heart of God because of the sin of the angels is suggested in the book of Job: ‘...and his angels he charged with folly’, (Job 4:18).

“That these evil angels have become irrevocably evil is shown by the fact that their place of eternal punishment has been prepared and designated by the omniscient God who makes no mistakes. This truth is set forth by the words of Yahweh himself concerning the future judgment of the living nations:

“‘Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels’, (Matthew 25:41).

“From these passages it becomes clear that God’s Book teaches that sin found entrance into the holy ranks of the angelic host. Some of the angels are no longer holy.

“C. The evil angels are held accountable for their fallen condition.

“There have been those who have placed the responsibility for the sinful condition of the evil angels upon the Creator himself, but the testimony of Jude shows that this degrading thought is repugnant to the truth:

“‘And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day’, (Jude 6).

“This passage reveals that the evil angels became so because they ‘kept not their first estate’ – they fell, and are consequently held accountable and responsible for their wicked action by a just God, who is reserving them ‘unto judgment.’

“Thus we see that the evil angels were originally holy angels; but that they became perverse and ‘left their first estate,’ plunging into such awful transgression that they were placed in ‘everlasting chains under darkness.’ So God is cleared of the awful charge that he created some of the angels evil. Those rebel angels sinned willfully. And the very fact that they are now held responsible and placed in chains for leaving ‘their first estate,’ coupled with the truth that Yahweh is declared to have created the angels ‘for himself,’ becomes inescapable demonstration that the now wicked angels were at one time holy and true, messengers of God and doing His blessed will.

“It was Spurgeon, that mighty preacher of God’s holy Word, who in one of his great sermons delivered in the Metropolitan Tabernacle, declared,

“‘The angels were ... in the central abode of God himself, yet evil entered into the breasts of angels – even envy, ambition, pride, rebellion, and they fell, fell, never to rise again’.”

While I agree with much of what Clifton L. Fowler is saying, I can’t accept his comment where he stated: “In Exodus 23:20, it is an angel who is God’s representative leading the people of Israel to the promised land.” Let’s read vs. 20 through 23:

“²⁰ Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. ²¹ Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him. ²² But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries. ²³ For mine Angel shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites: and I will cut them off.” There is only one person who fits this description of “my name is in him”, and that is Joshua, who had the same name as Christ in the New Testament, or Yahshua, as the letter “J” was not invented by the scribes until the 1600’s. If one will pronounce Joshua with a “Y” sound rather than a “J” , the relationship will become obvious. If one will check #430, elohim, in Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary, one will find the word covers several categories, although in most cases for the Almighty God Himself. Other applications also are magistrates, angels, judges and powerful men of war, and also pagan gods whom the pagans considered mighty.

At Acts 7:53, Stephen stated: “Who have received the law by the disposition of angels and have not kept it.” He was referring to Moses, Aaron and the other Levitical priests who served in the wilderness Tabernacle and later in Solomon’s Temple, as well as being judges among the people, and even serving in place of kings during the period of the rebuilt second Temple. The third temple was Herod’s temple, when the Levitical priesthood was usurped to a great degree by Edomites, whom surely Stephen could not classify as angels! While Fowler is doing quite well with his thesis, we see he is not perfect on every reckoning. At pages 9-10 he states, under the subtitle:

“II. The Angels That Sinned Were Disobedient In The Days Of Noah:

“The appalling sin of the angels of lawlessness rebelling against the laws and limitations of an holy God, took place in the days of Noah. Bearing upon this subject, the Holy Spirit has given, through the Apostle Peter, two striking passages:

“‘... preached unto spirits in prison. Which sometime were disobedient when once the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah ... I Peter 3:19-20’.

“There has been some failure to agree among scholars as to who these ‘spirits’ might be. But in the fact that the Scripture declares that He ‘maketh his angels spirits’ (Hebrews 1:7), and that these ‘spirits’ are said to have been imprisoned, thus harmonizing with Jude’s declaration concerning the angels ‘reserved in chains,’ we find the very words of Scripture pointing to the conclusion that these ‘spirits’ are angels. Confirming this conclusion, we see that Peter says these ‘spirits’ were guilty of a specific disobedience which he declares took place ‘in the days of Noah.’ The angels were also guilty of a specific infringement upon the law of God, which infringement took place in the days of Noah. This fact is revealed in II Peter 2:4-6:

“‘For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell (Tartarus), and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly.’

“The foregoing verses evidently set forth a terrible condition of sin, out of which God judged the great multitude of participants and delivered Noah. The participants in the awful sin which God here condemns are revealed to be two classes – ‘the angels,’ and the inhabitants of ‘the old world.’ This instantly arrests the attention of the student of God’s Word, causing a vitally important question immediately to present itself. The question is, ‘How can angels and human beings sin together?’ But the Spirit of God does not here see fit to answer the question, but is content to present the simple fact that the judgment of God took in all who were guilty – ‘spared not the angels,’ and ‘spared not the old world.’ Furthermore, we are informed as to the character of the judgment which a wise judge meted out upon both of the classes who had taken part in this sin – the angels are ‘delivered into chains of darkness’ and the judgment on mankind is declared in the words ‘bringing the flood upon the world of the ungodly.’

“Could Scripture statement be more satisfyingly clear? The passages from Peter’s writings which we have been considering show that angelic beings and human beings went into a partnership of iniquity, that God judged them both for their shameful deeds, and that this unthinkable sin against God took place in the days of Noah; but by faith Noah refused to participate, and being warned of God of the impending flood, prepared an ark to the saving of his house, (Hebrew 11:7).”

It is evident that Fowler understood quite well the racial mixing of the fallen angels with the women of Adam-kind at the time of Noah (and for that matter the race-mixing that was happening during Lot’s time in Sodom and Gomorrah), but he seems to fall short of comprehending that Satan himself fell with that mighty company of angels, as portrayed at Rev. 12:7-9 thusly:

“⁷ And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, ⁸ And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. ⁹ And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.”

Since we find the “serpent” (i.e., Satan) mentioned as early as Gen. 3:1, it is substantial evidence that “Satan ... and his angels” were cast out of heaven long before the time of Noah, or for that matter, long before Adam and Eve! How much before we are not told, and we can only conjecture. But if some of the archaeological evidence in the Dead Sea Scrolls is true, it could have been tens, or even hundreds of thousands of years! Their fall could have happened even before the creation of the animals, birds, fish or creeping things! The evidence we have from the Dead Sea Scrolls manifests that the fallen angels mixed their genetics with animal kind, (The Dead Sea Scrolls, A New Translation by Michael Wise, Martin Abegg Jr. and Edward Cook, on page 247, a translation of 1Q23, fragments 1 and 6:)

“¹ [... two hundred] ² donkeys, two hundred asses, two hund[red ... rams of the] ³ flock, two hundred goats, two hundred [... beast of the] ⁴ field from every animal, from every [bird ...] ⁵ [...] for miscegenation [...]”. And in the same source, 4Q531, fragment 2: “¹ [...] they defiled [...] ² [... they begot] giants and monsters [...] ³ [...] they begot, and, behold, all [the earth was corrupted ...] ⁴ [...] with its blood and by the hand of [...] ⁵ [giants] which did not suffice for them and [...] ⁶ [...] and they were seeking to devour many [...] ⁷ [...] ⁸ the monsters attacked it.” Again, 4Q532, Col. 2 fragments 1-6: “² [...] flesh [...] ³ al[l ...] monsters [...] will be [...] ⁴ [...] they would arise [...] lacking in true knowledge [...] because [...] ⁵ [...] the earth [grew corrupt ...] mighty [...] ⁶ [...] they were considering [...] ⁷ [...] from the angels upon [...] ⁸ [...] in the end it will perish and die [...] ⁹ [...] they caused great corruption in the [earth ...] ¹⁰ [... this did not] suffice to [...] ¹¹ they will be [...]”.

This shows that genetic engineering is nothing new, and started with the fallen angels. Also, any mention of creatures such as dinosaurs is missing in the Biblical creation story, making their origin highly questionable. The problem with Gen. 1:24 is the fact that there are two Hebrew words “chay” in the verse, which must be applied correctly. First, God declared He was going to create three living (“chay”²⁴¹⁶) creatures: (1) domesticated “cattle”⁹²⁹, (2) the creeping thing⁷⁴³¹, and, (3) lively “chay”²⁴¹⁶ untamable wild beasts. Many err by trying to claim that the “chay”²⁴¹⁶ in this verse is the creation of the nonwhite races, which couldn’t be further from the truth! The reason the lion and tiger are considered “chay”²⁴¹⁶ is because they are more lively than other animals. Once comprehending that the nonwhites are a mixture of fallen angel with animal-kind, it behooves every White parent to use every means possible to prevent their children from committing miscegenation with them, as the offspring from such a union will be a genetic violation, unfit for Yahweh’s Kingdom!

[Important Critique by William Finck: “Clifton: This is okay, but I remain persuaded that the spirits in prison to whom Christ preached are those Adamic spirits, or the people who were punished with the flood, while the ‘angels that sinned’ await judgment, not the gospel: they still awaited judgment in Peter’s day!” - Bill.]

I agree with Finck on this, but I would point out that none of the angel-adamite hybrids would be counted as redeemable; only the pureblooded Adamites seduced.